When Ryan Hall told me a few weeks ago he was doing an air ride build I knew it would be something I wanted to put up on the site. Over the next few months he will be keeping us up to date on how the Airlift Kit rides, performs and holds up.
Words+Pics: Ryan G Hall
Here’s how my car sat static, not the best shot, but whatevers.
So we got the car pulled into the shop with only a weekend’s time to get everything installed, we cracked open the Airlift boxes to make sure we had everything to get started.
The rear bags are Airhouse 2′s that came from Bag Riders (props to Will for getting them to me so quick even though he didn’t have them in stock at the time. 
) I know Bagyard & Mason Tech. both make a rear set up, but we knew we could do something with the rears without having to spend the extra cash, and the Mason Tech. rears don’t go as low as we wanted anyways.
Tim decided the best thing to do was to start on the rears since that would be the most time consuming. After ripping out the tired coilover suspension and some bouncing of ideas, Tim & Simon came up with a game plan, first thing to do was to get rid of the spring perch nipple so the rear bags could sit in the perch without obstruction.
Nipple yo.
Next, Tim got busy with a grinding everything down smooth and flush.
After that was outta the way, Tim had an idea to weld a 3/8′s bolt to the perch so the rear bags could be fitted with a 3/8′s bolt, that way the bags could be screwed onto the car and held in place.
Tim grinded everything down again so that the nut sat flush and wasn’t protruding or making contact with the bag.
Here’s where it gets dope, the idea is to not have to use a bracket or spacer for the fitting to clear (and also without adding any height to the rear bags), so Tim flipped the bag upside down so the fitting is now at the bottom of the bag, he then tapped the prep holes dead center for a 3/8′s bolt on both the top and the bottom of the bag.
Test fit
Now that the fitting was at the bottom of the bag, we looked at the rear control arm and noticed that the control arm was actually also used as a chase for the e-brake cable, after more inspection and realizing the thickness of the control arm, Tim decided to drill a hole for the fitting to drop down into, so the bag could sit in the perch perfectly flush, top and bottom.
Looking at the above picture, the airline when connected would exit the control arm from the hole on the right, which was there from the factory. Tim then shaped the hole he drilled on the left until the fitting dropped in without touching the control arm.
Test fit
With this done we knew we would get as much drop as possible in the rear as the only thing sitting in the perches are the bags. Tim bolted a wheel up to check the low factor and since my VN Lines poked so damn much we dove straight into tire, so we couldn’t really tell how low the rears would really go at this point.
Test fit
To finish off the rears for now, Tim drilled a hole at the bottom of the control arm for a 3/8′s bolt so that the bags could be bolted up from the bottom as well as screwed in at the top. Since the control arm was hollow, he didn’t want to run a crazy long bolt, so the hole was drilled only big enough for a socket to fit, then the bag could be bolted from the bottom, these rear bags are super secured.
At this point we decided to crack open a 6 pack and chill on a brew before we got started on the fronts.
